My Last Breath
by The Heavens' Answer
Summary: Soi Fon is mortally wounded, and Yoruichi is a whole world away. She is the reknowned goddess of flash, but will she be able to get there in time to say goodbye? Song: My Last Breath by Evanessence.


**My Last Breath.**

Yoruichi's breath caught in her throat as she ran. It seemed like forever that she was running in the pitch black tunnel between the worlds; knowing that every single second that passed was a second wasted. Something was wrong, Soi Fon was hurt… Time was of essence, but it was escaping her desperate grasp, slipping through her fingers like grains of sand, impossible to keep… taunting her and dragging on… torturing her with the thought that, if she didn't make it in time… she would never be able to see her alive again.

* * *

_Hold on to me love.  
You know I can't stay long.  
All I wanted to say was I love you and I'm not afraid.  
Can you hear me?  
Can you feel me in your arms?

* * *

_

" Have a nice death, fool!"

" Wait!" _Come back…coward…_

She grit her teeth and dragged herself forward, feeling her arms shake with the effort. She gasped. The pain was stifling. She couldn't move… she couldn't _breathe_…

Her determination broke; her arms gave way, she lay on the ground with her cheek was pressed against the cold and hard concrete. She was too tired and weak to fight back the savage waves of excruciating, burning pain that washed over her in constant waves. The grip she had on life was slipping; she was going to fall into the black void of nothingness that waited... Death was at her doorstep and she was minutes away from opening the door to greet it.

_Shit…this hurts… I can't see…_

_Just what… should I do? _

_To think that I am this weak… _

_What should I do…_

_Yoruichi-sama?_

She lifted her hand a few inches of the ground, trying futilely to blink past the black that veiled her sight; trying to fight off the stifling black cloak of Death that smothered her life; trying to struggle so it couldn't get it's cold, icy fingers around her soul to crush it.

* * *

_Holding my last breath.  
Safe inside myself,  
are all my thoughts of you.  
Sweet raptured light it ends here tonight.

* * *

_

Minutes passed, but it seemed like hours. The tunnel dragged on. Was she to be stuck here forever, not ever knowing what happened to Soi Fon,? Stuck here running down this never ending corridor of darkness until she couldn't run anymore?

Her heart pounded wildly against her ribcage like a trapped beast whose sole desire was to escape. Light! She could see the end of the tunnel. She prayed that she was the only one that did.

* * *

" You should be dead for the most part. I thought about hiding until you died, but…" He leaned over her, a wide satisfied smirk stretched across his pasty face. 

She turned her head slowly. " Then… why… are you here?"

" I sensed that your Shinigami friends were sealing away all my Rizus, one by one. I was wondering whether I should throw someone a little more powerful at them."

" You can't mean me…"

" You see, I can't hold back any when people are hurting my Rizu!" He giggled manically, bending over. " What are you thinking about?" he asked softly. " That you want to hit me here again?" He placed a hand over the Homonka; his voice ringing with mockery. " That you want to kill me?"

* * *

Yoruichi picked up her speed. She could barely feel Soi Fon's reiatsu anymore. It was fading… just as she herself was fading; she couldn't keep it up at this pace. It seemed impossible that she would reach Soi Fon soon enough to help. 

_Please, Soi Fon. Hold on…_

The wind howled all around her, mourning as she sped across the land, pushing herself to her limits. Time… she needed _time_.

* * *

_I'll miss the winter.  
A world of fragile things.  
Look for me in the white forest.  
Hiding in a hollow tree (come find me).  
I know you hear me.  
I can taste it in your tears.

* * *

_

" It's impossible!"

" Wait!" came a gruff yell.

" A security squad?" grinned Mabashi, gazing up to see the line of ten, dressed identically, all in black on the rooftop.

Within seconds they had landed beside their fallen Captain, trying to help her stand. " Captain! Are you okay?"

His eyes narrowed in amusement. " Oh? So there were still some left?"

_Holding my last breath.  
Safe inside myself,_

_are all my thoughts of you.  
Sweet raptured light it ends here tonight._

" But are they really your comrades?"

" …What?" Soi Fon barely had enough energy to raise her head.

" Rizu!" he roared, his face twisted into a demented mask of delight.

The guards twisted and turned, their hands forming claws, their bodies contorting into twisted shapes as they resisted. A white hole spread across all their stomachs. The yellow, red rimmed petals appeared from the gaping cavities and the purple vines spread across their abdomens, rooting them in place.

" Yes!" came the high pitched voice of the doll.

Soi Fon watched in horror as the vines became one with their bodies, impossible to remove. She felt the grip that her subordinates had on her arm tighten; it was strong enough to bruise. But that was the least of her worries now.

" What a pity! All of your subordinates belong to my Rizu!" He licked his lips in anticipation, his eyes glittered with madness. " Do it."

They lift her up by her arms roughly; one grabbed her hair and pulled.

" What's happened to all of you?" she asked quietly, wincing at her overshadowed guard's vicious ministrations.

" How does it feel to have your own subordinates hold you down?"

* * *

_Closing your eyes to disappear.  
You pray your dreams will leave you here.  
But still you wake and know the truth.  
No one's there.

* * *

_

She ignored Byakuya's questions, speeding past him and a few other captains. Nothing mattered. Nothing was important. Not now. She just needed to get to Soi Fon. No matter what the cost… _Soi Fon! Wait… I'm coming_…_Don't go now… please…

* * *

_

" I'm going to take your body! With Rizu's powers, I'll work you to death!" At the thought of this, his smile grew even wider.

" You bastard."

" It's useless," he chuckled. " Rizu!"

" Right!" The doll burst through the ground and landed on his open palm. The purple part opens, revealing the doll's fox like face. She then lifted up into the air and started to circle his head.

" How ironic," he comments watching her glare soften as she closed her eyes slowly.

_Say goodnight.  
Don't be afraid.  
Calling me, calling me as you fade to black._

" Farewell, Captain-san."

" Well then, I'll take you now," exclaimed Rizu, flying towards her.

Smoky white tendrils start to blossom, engulfing her in still form in white as it grew more and more powerful. Her eyes snapped open. The wind gusted, Rizu and the guards are blown away by the sheer force of her reiatsu.

" What?!" he cried in disbelief, raising an arm to shield his eyes from the blinding white.

Seeing her chance, Soi Fon charged, leapt, and plunged Suzumebachi into his chest. " This is the second Homonka," she said, pulling the stinger out of the middle of the hornet's crest with a sickening squelch. Blood coated her hand.

She jumped back nimbly as he coughed and clutched his chest, wheezing as he felt the poison spread throughout his veins; the pain was already intense as it started to eat away at his body from the inside. " Bitch! Why… why can you still move?!"

Soi Fon stared at him coldly, a few meters away in a crouch. " Who do you think I am? I've already counteracted your poison." She pushed the sleeve of her glove down slowly to reveal a Homonka identical to the one emblazoned on his chest.

His eyes widened. " That's…"

" I have been trained to be a guard ever since I was little, so my body is already immune to most normal poisons. And I know how to make anti-venom for any new poison I encounter. With Suzumebachi, I can inject poison or draw it out."

" Then why did you act like you couldn't move?!" he rasped, not fully believing that she had bested him despite all.

" It was all or nothing," she said icily.

* * *

Yoruichi could see the buildings. The court. They were there, she could feel it. She swallowed her trepidation, running faster than she ever did before.

* * *

Mabashi fell on all fours, gasping as he tried to breathe. 

" This is the end," she told him.

" Don't underestimate me!" he growled indignantly. "Rizu!"

" Understood!"

Rizu's emerged from the guard's bodies, slowly as Mabashi spoke.

" I still have Rizu! I'll get you this time!" He growled feverishly.

Soi Fon didn't move. Her gaze bore into him coolly.

"What's wrong?!" he shrieked, lifting up his head. "You're so scared that you can't move?"

" How foolish," she deadpanned.

" Bitch…" He raised his hand, curling it into a fist. " Rizu, get her!"

" Sure thing!" The doll closed in on Soi Fon, who continued to watch him, disdain clear in her eyes. They encircled her for a moment, closed in, then turned and flew at Mabashi.

" What's this? Hey, Rizu! Stop it!" He frantically tried to bat them away. His voice cracked as he panicked. " Not me! Get that woman! Kill that woman!"

" Understood!" they cried, their voices ear splittingly high as they started to attack him with renewed vigor.

" Rizu, you-? Why?!" He screams in pain. His voice echoes across the area.

Soi Fon watched, her face blank. " Your puppets are a double-edged sword. I've heard that if your own power wanes, it will turn on you."

A glowing, dusty green light emanates from his body as he falls to the ground, his hands covering his head. " Rizu, stop it! Stop it!"

" It's pointless," she said dispassionately. A breeze ruffles her hair. " Your body is already being eaten away by Suzumebachi's poison."

A loud gurgle emits from the cloud of bright green light and the Rizus disappear.

A split second later, Mabashi's body withers and burst into a cloud of dust. The particles were quickly blown away by the wind and his suit flew up into the air; then settled, crumpled on the ground.

Soi Fon stepped forward, staring at the clothing.

" _Soi Fon!_"

She whirled, seeing Yoruichi run through the gate.

Yoruichi skidded to a stop in front of her, breathless, as she observed her, up and down. " You… okay?" she panted, her fierce golden eyes shimmering with _tears?_

Soi Fon nodded. " I'm fine," she said, a little irritated. Then again, she was always a little irritated.

There was a heavy silence.

Then Yoruichi threw her arms around her, hugging her tightly and burying her head into her shoulder. Soi Fon was at loss for words when she felt Yoruichi's tears soak her shirt as she cried. Soi Fon hesitantly wrapped her arms around Yoruichi, trying futilely to try and comfort her distraught senpai. They stood there for minutes as Yoruichi's tears slowly ebbed away.

Soi Fon loosened her grip, but Yoruichi didn't let go. Instead she held her even closer and tighter than before; resting her head on Soi Fon's shoulder and closed her eyes.

" Y-Yoruichi-sama…" she stammered, feeling the heat rise to her face; she could feel Yoruichi's breath on her cheek.

Yoruichi said nothing at first, still sniffling as the worst of the storm was over.

" _Don't ever do that to me again_," she hissed vituperatively, into her ear.

Soi Fon smiled sadly. " I'll try not to."

* * *

_Holding my last breath.  
Safe inside myself.  
are all my thoughts of you.  
Sweet raptured light…_

… _It ends here tonight.

* * *

_

A/N: Argh. This was kind of cruddy… but that's because I had to rewrite this all cause my other document got deleted somehow. Totally wiped out… there was no trace of it anymore. But anyways… I know a lot of people dislike the Bounto arc, but I thought it was alright… this was one of my favourite episodes of the arc... but anyways… I will be writing an Ichigo/Rukia centered one-shot. Soon.

Thanks for reading. (Please review?)

Dark S3cret.

P.S. I will be reposting this sometime. When I can actually write. My apologies…


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